Caught
by llmockingbirdll
Summary: Fluttershy never wanted this. She just wanted to get through high school. Now she has to push through with bullies around every corner. Can she get through the lies, blackmail and deceit? Rainbow Dash wants to protect her, but how can she without knowing what's wrong? Will they get through the last year if school together, or will they get caught and everything gets burned down?
1. Quiet

**Chapter I, Quiet**

 **Fluttershy**

Someone placed their hand on my shoulder. The heat from their hand warmed my body.

"Flutters, you need to get up."A scratchy, but kind voice said, speaking so quietly only I can hear her, "It's not good to be by yourself in a closet."

To answer to this I curl up into a tighter ball, tucking my legs under my chin and shake my head.

"Come one Fluttershy, you can't let those bullies get to you. You need to show them it doesn't effect you. Then they'll get bored and move on." She says, refusing to let me be.

"That's just it," I say, my voice barely louder than a whisper, "It does affect me, and they _won't_ move on, not ever." The final phrase I said so quietly it's a wonder that Rainbow Dash could hear me.

Rainbow Dash squatted down and crawled into the closet. "What makes you say that?"

I shake my head, she can't know.

Rainbow Dash sighs but doesn't leave, instead she puts her arm around my shoulder and pulls me close. I make no resistance, but even if I did it would still end the same, her being able to bench more than I weigh.

We stayed like this for a while, her arm around me, my head on her shoulder, her head on my head. I knew eventually we would have to get off the closet floor. I'm not going to be the one to pull away.

"Who were you yelling at?" I ask.

"Sparrow Feather." She says without a moments hesitation.

"Why were you yelling at the most popular girl in school?"

"A reason." She answers.

"What is that reason?" I press.

Rainbow Dash pauses for a moment, probably considering if she should tell me, "she was making fun of you. I couldn't stand it."

"Did you yell at her During class?" I ask, shocked, because talking during class isn't a smart thing to do at Cloudsdale High, at any school, you could get detention, you could get called up in front of the class, you could be sent to Principal Wren... My mind kept adding to the list, making it worse and worse.

But Rainbow Dash interrupted my thoughts, which had now gotten as bad as, getting expelled, get banished from Equestria etc. "Yeah." She answers, the corners of her mouth twitching as she tries to suppress a grin from my gasp of horror.

"You shouldn't have! How much trouble are you in? What did the teacher do? What else did you do?"

"I know I shouldn't have, but I did, and I don't regret it. Besides yell at her I leapt at her, but I didn't get to her, Dumbbell caught me first, sometimes his crush on her gets really annoying." Dumbbell is Rainbow Dashes nickname for Bulk Biceps, a good friend of hers. The nickname is based on his love for dumbells, and his reputation of being, well, a dumb bell. "The teacher yelled, but Mr. Presley can't do anything against us, he could have retired 3 years ago!"

"I think Mr. Presley is a sweet little guy, it's not his fault everybody's so hard on him." I say in his defense.

"I'm not saying he's not, I'm just saying he couldn't have done much if he wanted to. He gave me detention for a week and a note for my Dad. Not bad if you ask me."

I jump when I here a thump and it takes a moment for me to realize it's my Mom coming up the stairs, probably with laundry.

"Well Zephyr Breeze won't help her, let's go." Rainbow Dash says.

Zephyr Breeze is my lazy little brothers name, he's a year younger than me and can't finish one simple job.

"Yeah." Even though I don't want to move I scoot over to the side a little so Rainbow Dash can get out. I follow her to the stairs were my Mom is struggling to carry the laundry bin up the stairs, both cause the laundry bin is filled to the brim, and her being eight months pregnant.

"Here, let me help." Rainbow Dash says, going down the stairs and grabbing the bin from her.

"Oh, thanks Rainbow Dash, I don't think I could have made it to the top." Mom says, breathing hard.

"No sweat Mrs. Swaide." Rainbow Dash says, smiling at my mom's determination.

When Rainbow Dash gets to the top and carries the bin a little ways away, I help mom go up the remainder of the way.

"I don't know what I would do without you two girls." Mom says in her quiet way that everybody in my family speaks in, except for Zephyr. "I'll take the bin so I can fold." She turns to Rainbow Dash and takes the bin and walks into her and my Dads bedroom.

As soon as she close the door, very gently, Zephyr walks out of his bedroom, that happens to be the room closet to the stairs.

"Why didn't you help Mom?" I ask,getting a little angry, knowing he probably was waiting for Mom to leave.

"Why so angry Sis? Anger does some serious damage to hair." He says in a relaxed, somewhat slurred voice.

"I don't care about my hair..."

"You should." He interrupts.

I glare at him, "Mom's pregnant with our new sibling, and you can't find the decency to help her!"

"I was busy studying." He says in his fake innocent voice, looking at me with big eyes, not noticing Rainbow Dash mimicking him.

"Ha! you've never studied in your life!" I lowered my voice, that never actually got louder than a normal speaking voice, and leaned in close to his face, staring straight into his violet eyes, "I bet you were drinking again, weren't you? You wouldn't want Mom and Dad to know, would you?"

"No I wasn't Sis, *hiccup* you know me better than that." He says, unconvincingly. He leans in closer, putting his mouth next my ear, "but you would want them to know your little secret, would you? Oh, imagine the horror, good Christian parents, the homophobic kind, find out their beloved daughter is... Lesbian. Oh no, you don't want that to happen do you?" He pulls away, looking smug. "Well, bye! Back to studying!"

I look over to Rainbow Dash, who, looks very confused.

"What was that about?" She asks.

"Nothing. Let's just, umm, do you want to play Pnopoly?" I ask, hoping she'll drop the conversation.

"Okay."

We start walking towards the stairs, but when I get to the edge I feel her breath on my ear, a ripple goes through my body, "Flutters, if there's anything you need to tell me, I'm here." Then Rainbow Dash moves back a little and I start going down the stairs. My hand still tingling from when hers touched mine.

 **Rainbow Dash**

"Bye Fluttershy! See you tomorrow!" I yell as I leave The Swaide's house. I walk down the stairs that are in front of their house.

"Rainbow Dash! I need to talk to you!" A quiet voice whispers that could only belong to a Swaide.

I turn to the side to see Mr. Swaide walk out from behind Mrs. Swaide's roses. "Yes?"

"I want to talk to you about Fluttershy."

"What about her?" I'm pretty sure I already know, but he doesn't know that.

"She's been acting quieter than usual, and that's hard to do. Is there anything that's happened at school? I'm worried about her."

"Not that I know of." I lie, "but I'll keep you posted." Another lie.

Mr. Swaide sighs, "okay, could you keep an eye on her? Just to make sure."

"Alright." A blue car with lightning on the sides drives up to the house, the window pulls down and a man in his early thirties with rainbow streaks in his black hair smiles and calls out to me. "Well, my Dad's here, see you later!" I smile and wave as I walk towards the car.

"Hey-ya Bowie!" Dad says in his laughter filled voice.

"Hi-ya Pops!" I say to my Dad in a loud, joking voice, "how was your day?"

"Better now that I've done.. This!" He reaches over and starts tickling me right were I tickle most, the stomach.

I start laughing uncontrollably, flailing my arms around in the car, " stop, *snort* we need to, *giggle* get home!"

"Alright, but first, cool face selfie!"

I snort, this is one of the things I love about my Dad, the way he knows how to make me laugh.

We both pull out sunglasses from the compartment between the two front seats and put them on.

My Dad pulls out his phone and we both do our serious face. Also known as a Pokerface. "One, two, three cheese!" He takes the picture and we both lean in to see. "Ooo, I think this ones a keeper. What do you think Bowie?" Bowie is his nickname name for me, he didn't want to call me 'Dashie' or 'Bow' so he came up with the closet thing, Bowie, not Bow-E, Bough-E. Like David Bowie.

"Yeah, it is." I smile, with Dad being a single dad, he and I have grown really close over the years. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Before we as he shifted gears to go I looked at Fluttershy's house. I think I glimpsed a movement outside of the windows but we started driving before could be sure.


	2. Popular Girl

**Chapter II, Popular Girl**

 **Fluttershy**

I wake up crying, Nightmares. Again. I curl up into a ball, rubbing my plush toy that I've had forever, on my face. The Nightmare was worse than the past ones, it showed what I dared not to ever even think might happen. All the things that hurt me the most, crammed into a dream. I shudder when I think of what happened in it.

I shake my head, today's Monday, I need to get ready for school. School. I look over at the clock, it reads 6:30. 6:30! The bus comes in 20 minutes! I jump out of bed and get ready lightning quick.

When I finish brushing my hair I look at my freshly clean face. My Teal eyes pair well with my light pink hair. Then I notice a red pimple popping up. I slap on some pale-yellow concealer and some crepe-colored lipstick. I don't personally care, but I don't want them to have another thing to use against me.

"Fluttershy! The bus is here!" Mom says through the door.

"Okay Mom!" I run out the door, hug Mom, run down the stairs, grab and drag Zephyr out to the bus.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Zephyr whines. "You're hurting me!"

"No I'm not, I'm barely griping you."

"Just let go of me, I'm fifteen now, I don't need you leading me."

"Okay." I let go of him and climb into the bus, since our neighborhood is the last stop, it is filled to the brim. I slowly squeeze through the bus to the back, where, there was some space to grip the overhead bar.

Zephyr joined his friends, or, the school drug dealers. Everybody knows they are the 'secret drug dealers' but nobody's stupid enough to report them.

Rainbow Dash doesn't ride the bus, her Dad drives her, but even if she did she would be in a different bus. Since I don't really have any other friends at Cloudsdale High, I stay by myself the entire ride.

I get through most of the day fine, Ms. Silver, the Literature teacher, gave us an insane amount of homework, "... 300 pages and 15 questions by Thursday..." It wasn't in till lunch my luck disappeared.

 **Rainbow Dash**

"And then I said 'bug off woman!'" Soarin finished his story and everyone started laughing their heads off.

Somewhere, during the laughing, I saw Fluttershy sneak through the cafeteria, but I was to busy laughing to be sure.

"Hahaha," a silvery, relaxing voice laughed behind Soarin, "very funny Soarin, how about you come over to my place and make me laugh, huh?"

Soarin immediately went red in the face, while Bulk Biceps gave him a look of pure jealousy.

"Hi, Sparrow Feather, how are you doing today?" I ask, trying to divert the attention from Soarin. "I honestly thought you would be so sucked by your reflection to come." I say this in a chipper voice, smiling in a way that doesn't let her see how much I hate her.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash, I see you're as offensive as ever."

"Har har har," I laugh sarcastically, "was that supposed to make me insulted?"

"Whatever, I don't want to talk to you." She flicks her hair around and walks off saying, "come over whenever Soarin!"

"Chya, no." He answers under his breath.

The guys start talking again, but I just can't pay attention, instead, my eyes followed Sparrow Feather. Why is she walking to the back? My eyes scan the back of the cafeteria. Then I see. She's walking straight to Fluttershy.

While Soarin and all the other jocks start joking and laughing again, I keep my eyes trained on Sparrow Feather, who was talking to frightened Fluttershy.

It seemed to be okay, for a few minutes, but then Fluttershy ran from the Cafeteria, holding back tears.

Anger boiled up from inside me, Sparrow Feather and her two minions, Starling and Morning Dove, are laughing at Fluttershy run. How dare they! They bully people, laugh at them, and make me Soo angry!

"Sparrow Feather!" I yell, not caring if I got in trouble. I walk up to her and her minions. "Why'd you do that?"

"Do what?" She asks innocently.

"Hurt Fluttershy." I growl, inches away from blowing and punching her.

"Oh, the shy, crybaby? Yeah, I guess I might have hurt her, bug that's what all of her kind deserve."

"Fluttershy doesn't deserve to be bullied, no one does!" By now some of the Cafeteria ladies were walking over, to 'break up' the fight.

"Oh yes she does, all gays deserve to be punished. That's what Pastor Nick says.

"So you can sleep with all the guys in our grade, and still be that devote Christian believer? And Fluttershy is not a lesbian."

"God forgives the good people! And she is a gay, a big fat Lesbo!" She shrieked.

I know I shouldn't have, I'm already in detention, but she had pulled the last straw. It's not that I'm against gays, but she was talking like its a bad thing, plus, she deserved it.


	3. Bending

**Two story updates' in one day! *does a little jig***

* * *

 **Chapter III, Bending**

 **Rainbow Dash**

"Tell me, Rainbow Dash, why you have attempted – and succeeded, if I may add – to harm the lovely Miss Sparrow?" Vice Principal Feather asked, clearly annoyed and ready to expel me.

"Because, your charming daughter deserved it. She's a butt face and," I lean closer to the VP's angry face. "I think she's got cooties. She got them from the boys, I'm sure of it."

Feather's eyebrows shot up. "What boys? Darling?" He looks to Sparrow, as if she's going to tell him anything.

"Daddy, are you really going to believe her? She's just trying to direct the attention and blame towards me, she _is_ the person you're trying to punish here." Sparrow flicked her navy-blue hair out of her face and went back to texting someone – probably her boyfriend of two days, Blue Knight.

Feather glared back at me. She didn't even answer his question!

"You do know she never answered your question, right? She just placed all blame and suspicion back on me, and you're going with it."

"Daddy, don't believe her!" Sparrow Feather screeched. "She's lying and you can see it in her smug face!"

"Only the guilty deny an accusation that strongly Sparrow, is there something you'd like to tell your father?" Goodness, it's times like these I'm grateful I've practiced keeping a straight face. Because, Sparrows face right now is at Grammy level shock, and it's hilarious.

"Why you little bitch!" She must have lost it, she never cusses, even when you push her buttons a little (a lot.) "How dare you accuse me of being untoward? You should rot in hell for all the evil deeds you've done! Hey, I bet your one of those little lesbian lovers! Ha, that would explain everything! You're just one of those fags!"

During this entire speech Vice Principal Feather had tried to stop Sparrow from spewing profanity, but he was drowned out by her screeching. "Enough! Sparrow, you're grounded, and you, Rainbow Dash, I apologize for my daughter's behavior, all your actions have been explained by this conversation. All is forgotten."

"What! That's unfair, I've never done anything, that bitch has, but not me! Father if you do this-"

"Shut it Sparrow, you've lost this battle. Just admit it." She can be so annoyingly persistent.

"You're just jealous of my purity, fucking lesbian!"

"Sparrow Amara Feather, you are grounded and in detention until I see fit!" Sparrows face was only rage, nothing more. But, thankfully, she kept her tongue this time.

I got up to leave, as he did excuse me.

"Rainbow Dash, I am so sorry for my daughter calling you one of those horrible lesbians, you don't deserve what she called you." Vice Principal says sincerely, at least he meant it.

As I get to the door, I turn just so slightly so he can see half of my face. "Who says I'm not?" With that, I left.

 **Fluttershy**

Why do I have to be so weak? So, vulnerable? Sparrow Feather hadn't gone that far out of the usual threatening. So, what had caused me to flee?

 _She's started to blackmail you._

A little niggle of a thought flew through my head. I sighed. Rolling my knees closer to my body, a position I've found myself in more times than not lately, I squeeze myself into a secluded corner in the school library. She had threatened my secrecy, and she would tell the entire student body if I didn't do what she asked. And she asked the impossible, breaking the rules.

That would not do. I _can't_ break the rules, that's like… breaking the law! But if I don't, she will tell the entire student body my secret.

That can't happen. My eyes pushed out more tears at my resolution, Fluttershy Swaide is going to be a rule-breaker.

 _Get my phone from Mr. Fenn's office_

 _Paint the school flag Crimson_

 _Sabotage the annual 'Find a Furry Friend''_

 _Pull a gun prank – don't let them now it was you_

 _Punch Mrs. Vultch's tires_

 _Find dirt on Connie Blue_

 _Cut Marigolds hair short_

Horror. Horror of what I'm going to do is all I can feel.

* * *

 **Fluttershy's gone rouge! You have no idea how much I'm going to love writing the 'bad girl' scenes, because Fluttershy's so innocent, ya know?**

 **So, there is actual swearing in this, I don't usually swear/put profanity in stories, but it seemed like it went with the story. Sorry if I offended someone, that was not my intention.**

 **Mockingbird**


	4. Regret

**Chapter IV: Regret**

 **Rainbow Dash**

"Oh, my, goodness. What did I do?" I think to myself. It's been half a week, and still almost all I can think, is the face Principal Feather made when I came-out to him. I haven't even come-out to my dad, Flutters, or anyone close to me; why would I to the Principal and his devil of a daughter?

So far, Sparrow Feather hasn't done anything to me or Fluttershy, she seems to be ignoring us, which, is a _huge_ improvement from what it was before. But part of me wondered, how long would she shy away, what is she planning? Noting the smirk she just threw in my direction as she walked past me in the hall, it wouldn't be something I liked.

For the most part Fluttershy had acted normal when I saw her next, when she returned from her obvious cry. But I knew – know – it was for show. Something has been bugging me when I am in her presence. It is like, she is pulling away from me. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why!

But right now, I have to deal with the problem at hand, the first game of the season is coming up in three months, and the team needs to be in tip-top shape. Mindy Wind was kicked out of the team last year because of an unforeseen pregnancy, and this year she wanted to try out for Talon. She is a nice girl overall, but her shrill, voice and uppity nature is almost too much most of the time. Talon is one of the most popular sports in Equestria, ranking 3rd overall. And my favorite sport, the one I plan to go to college for.

Since I was elected as team captain this year, again, I need to oversee try-outs and choose who I want in the team. Technically, I already have a team in mind, I know all the people, and all of them are bearable, unlike Mindy. But, rules are rules, even if you have the most kick-ass team in the world, you have to let everyone tryout, even if they suck.

So that's why, instead of going to have burgers with my dad like it's a normal Friday night, I am stuck in the sweaty gym, watching poor Etcher try to sprint across the gym and back. Etcher's an amazing person, and if I ever have more time on my hands, I would definitely befriend him. But, he does not have a 'sporty' body, so to speak.

His parents make him tryout, every year. They are sport fanatics. They both were on the Talon team when they were in high school, so poor Etcher has to attempt to be athletic, even if he doesn't want to.

"So," he pants, "we both know I did terrible, so you don't need to say."

"Well, you didn't do _as_ bad as you did last year…" I attempt to console.

He snorts. "Well, last year I tripped on my shoelaces, and face-planted so hard I had to go to the nurses office. So, I hardly think this counts." I laugh at the memory.

"Well, I'm off to tell my parents that I didn't make the team. They might be a _little_ upset, considering, THIS IS MY LAST YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL!" He begins to swing his arms around in circles above his head in victory. I laugh uncontrollably at the sight.

"Well, I'm sure you'll enjoy your last year here, knowing that you won't have to deal with any of us high schoolers anymore." Etcher is a Senior, as well as the rest of the group, and Fluttershy, but I'm only a Junior. So when they leave for college, I'll have to stay here and finish my last year in this hell-school.

"Oh, stop being bitter. It's not your fault you needed to take an extra year in 9th." He smiled. "Oh, wait, it was." I glared at him. "What was your logic? 'Sarcasm is always the best policy.'" He smirked, I swear! He used to be nice! Dang it. I infected the Roly-poly.

Roly-poly was Etcher's nick-name in Elementary and Middle school. He had been a little puff-ball that you just want to protect. Since people had started teasing him about his weight around 4th grade, Dumbbell and I took him in and started our group, The Screaming Chihuahua's. We've added more people to our group, like Soarin, since then. The name of our group was dedicated to the recent death of Dumbbell's beloved chihuahua, Porky. Porky hated everyone, except for Dumbbell, and barked at anything moving, and so came The Screaming Chihuahua's.

"Okey, just because I basically answered _every_ question that was thrown at me with sarcasm, does not mean you get to tease me now." I grumble. He laughed at my touchiness on the subject. At fourteen I had been a butthole. My ego was _huge_ then. Ruling the middle school the year before had probably fueled it.

"Alright, grumpy pants, I'll stop. But," I rolled my eyes, Etcher really liked getting things out of the simplest things, "only if you agree to go out to milkshakes with sometime in the next month."

"What about the rest of the group?"

"We always so go everywhere with the group, and we haven't hung out one-on-one in forever. So, just the two of us, Chick-fil-a sound good?" I processed this. It is true, we _do_ hang out with the group a lot. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time it was just us.

"Okey, sounds good! But if Dumbbell finds out and is hurt, you have to console him. I suck at consoling people." Bulk Biceps probably won't be upset, he hangs out with the two of us too often for him to take offence.

"Yes! I'll text you times I'm open." He says as he picks up his duffel bag. He carries it everywhere. "See you tomorrow Dashie!" He chortled at the angry noise I made at the name. It's what I wanted to be called at nine years old! You shouldn't keep someone that young to their word!

"See you tomorrow Roly-Poly!"

 **Fluttershy**

Rainbow Dash left the gym with Etcher Dell, both of them talking exuberantly.

I take a deep breath. I'm going to cross off two of the things Sparrow Feather put on the list tonight. The one she gave to me when she threatened my secret. _My secret_. I know exactly how she knows, I even told her myself. If only I hadn't been that delusional. We had been friends in middle school.

I regret nothing more.

* * *

 _I smile at Sparrow Feather, my best friend. We met at the begginning of middle school, both of us were little eleven year olds, both of us new to Cloudsdale Middle. I can remember her so clearly from that first day._

 _Her red hair was worn in a long, straight pony-tail. She had a pinkish skin color, and the prettiest, golden eyes I'd ever seen. Scratch that, the prettiest eyes I'd ever seen. She looked around her, unsure of what to do. It was the beginning of first period, and I didn't know where to go, and it looked like neither did she. I was nervous, but I didn't want to have to wait around the halls for someone to point me where to go by myself. So I had come up to her, and completmented her outfit, it was the school uniform but she had added little, silver bows to the sleaves. She smiled right back and said she liked my backpack, it had an adorable, tiny puppy on it. For the rest of the day we stayed near eachother. For the rest of the week we stayed together, and from then on, me and Sparrow played together everyday._

 _Right now we are having a sleep over, it is the early morning, about two o'clock. We are both in eighth grade now. She is still thirteen and I just turned fourteen. We've been fast friends for a while now. It's been amazing. When I was younger I thought I'd never have any friends, but here Sparrow is, waving her hands around while she tells the story of her expereince with the math teacher, Mr. Simmons._

" _Oh, come on Sparrow, he's not that bad!" I defend our squimpy teacher._

 _My parents have said, behind my back of course, that having Sparrow Feather as friend has helped me a ton in getting out of my shell. In elementrary school I was bullied a lot, which is part of the reason we moved to the zoning area for Cloudsdale, so that I would get away from them. Sparrow has helped, I know it. I walk around school without being worried about being shoved into the wall, I talk to people I don't know without stuttering, these past three years have been the best. I owe it all to Sparrow._

" _He is! He told us to write a five page essay, in preperation for the quiz tomorrow. Which he specified, is a writing quiz!" She emphasizes almost every word._

" _Well… yeah… okay, I guess your right about that." I admit. "But that doesn't mean he is a terrible person!"_

" _Yeah, it does!"_

" _Fine. You win this argument, but I'll win the next."_

" _Yeah sure. Whatever, you wish." I stick my tongue out at her cockiness. "Alright, I'm bored of this topic, so lets switch it, huh?" I shrug, I really don't care what we talk about, just as long as I'm hanging out with her. "Okay, did you see how Starling looked at Bulk today? I swear, she needs to get over her crush on him, I mean, what does she even see in him? I guess, he does have really nice arm muscles, but that's besides the point!"_

" _I think he's really sweet, as long as he's not hanging out with Soarin and Etcher, they're trouble." I defend our class mate._

" _Aww, sweet Fluttershy, always deffending everyone." Sparrow flashes her daziling smile at me._

" _I do not!"_

" _Do to, your defending yourself right now." I scowl at her. She laughs. Her laugh is like a tinkling noise, really sweet and small. There is a short pause, but, per usual, Sparrow starts conversation again. "So… we know who Starling would like to kiss, but who would Fluttershy Swaide want to kiss? She never expresses any like for a boy, so nobody knows, not even her best friend." She made an exaderate pouty face._

" _I guess that Fluttershy just wants to keep to herself, I mean, it's not a secret if somebody knows it." I reply. Knowing full well she wouldn't stop questioning me on who I liked until my mom picks me up, and then probably some more when school starts on Monday. Is it worth not telling her?_

" _Secrets aren't fun unless everyone knows them!" Sparrow quoted her mom, who firmly believed in the 'no secrets' policy._

" _Then they're not secrets."_

" _Pssh, whatever. Hey! Tell you what, you don't have to tell me who you like," I sigh of relief, "but you have to kiss your crush by the end of the week." I can feel my face heating up. Kiss my crush! That's not something you do, right? You don't kiss your crush because you're sure to regret it! At least, that's what my mom says._

 _I sputter incoherently._

" _Ha-ha! It is a deal then, you have to kiss your crush by the end of the week, and I have to see you kiss them, and then I won't bug you about crushes until high school." Her smirk wideness into a smile when a blush creeps up onto my face._

 _Well, might as well go for it. Wait, I have a week, don't I? To late, I'm going for it._

 _I lean forward and kiss Sparrow Feather on her laughing lips._

 _She stops laughing and kisses me back. Her lips are soft, like a pillow, but firmer. This might be the best day of my life so far._

 _At first, we just kind of, have our lips on the others lips, but then, she does something I never expected the religiously-raised girl to do; she tentively touches her tongue to my bottom lip. I almost keel over from shock, not only did my crush not scream murder and run for the hills, but she's kissing me back._

 _I open my mouth the tiniest bit, and her tongue comes in. This is so much better than imagining. Somehow her hands end up running in my pink hair, scraping my skull. I see why cats love to have their heads scratched, it feels amazing._

 _But nothing good can last forever._

 _I'm so caught up in the kiss, I don't hear the door to Sparrow's bedroom squeak open._ " _Girls?" A female scream lurches us out of our kiss. Well, snogging session, I guess. Sparrow Feather shoves me away from where I was leaning ontop of her, and screams as well, pointing at me._

 _The two female Feather's screams brought the thumping of Mr. Feather's feet up the stairs. He burst into the room, probably excpecting a murder scene. That's not what met him._

 _I am splayed on the floor, bruised on the butt where I fell, recovering from the new shock of what happened. While Mrs. Feather stood in the doorway screaming, and Sparrow on her bed, pointing at me and screaming as well._

" _She kissed me daddy!"_

" _She kissed our poor, dear Sparrow!"_

 _Tears well up in my eyes, if she hadn't wanted to kiss me, she could've just said. I would've stopped, and probably've left. Part of me says that she had wanted to kiss me, and was just doing this for show in front of her homophobic parents. The other part of me tells me to get away from here, as fast as you can. I follow that instinct._

 _When I run out the house, Sparrows three older brothers, Talisman, Chorter, and Inkild, chase me, they probably heard her terrified shreiking. They shout horrible, horrible threats and names as I run away._

 _I sneak into my house quietly, so as not to wake my sleeping parents and brother. I slip up the stairs, close my bedroom door behing me, and crawl into my closet. I get under the blanket tent I have set up and cry._

 _I hope, with all my heart, that this is all a bad dream that I will wake up from at Sparrow's house tomorrow, and everything will be fine._

 _Or at least, we stay friends. I can't lose her._

* * *

A tear slides down my cheek. I wipe it away. Sparrow Feather is wrong, and I will get out of this hole. I just need to do what she says and get through the school year, then I can move as far away as possible and get on with my life.

My plan set, I march to the exit doors on the side of the building, hauling along the crimson paint. Crimson is the color of Cloudsdale's biggest opponents, so at least it won't be tracked back to someone at Cloudsdale, I shouldn't get caught.

I get to the flag, breathe in, and grab the paint brush. "It's time to get some re-decorating, old buddy." I whisper. The crimson stands out extremely well on the sky-blue and silver flag. Nobody's going to miss this. I stand back to look at my work in horror. Then I pull the flag up, tie the strings that keep it up just so, and then caught some off. The flag goes up, and the string. They should both stay up at the top, getting them off will be a problem. When the principal gets here tomorrow morning, he _definintely_ won't be able to miss it.

I hate myself.

* * *

 **I know! It's been forever! But, this is the new chapter! I hope you like it. It's almost been two years since I joined , it's almost 2018. Wow. How the time flies.**

 **I've been terrible at updating this fic, and I did take a break from writing completely over the first half of this year. I apologize. But, I've started writing more often, and have updated every week on different fics for the past six weeks. So, I am getting better at time management!**

 **I hope to update this fic in the next month or so, but I am a slave to my muse, and it can't make up it's mind.**

 **Happy Holidays, little birdies, and may the new year look amazing, what am I kidding, the new year _will_ look amazing on you all! Eat a lot of chocolate and goodies, drink all the tasty stuff, and rest up! 2018 promises to be a busy year.**

 **Love all of you always,**

 **Mockingbird**


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